J&K BJP chief serves legal notice to former MLC, seeks apology for making ‘false ‘corruption charges

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina on Monday served a legal defamation notice to former MLC Surinder Choudhary who recently joined National Conference here after ending his over year-long association with the national party.
Raina sought an unconditional apology from Choudhary within a week for his attempts to damage his reputation among the masses and the party ranks, warning of a defamation suit worth Rs five crore against the politician after the expiry of the deadline.
Choudhary quit Peoples Democratic Party on March 30, last year before joining BJP within a week. However, he left the BJP and joined National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah on July 7. Choudhary announced his decision to quit BJP on his twitter handle and accused Raina of encouraging “familism and corruption”.
“I have served a legal notice to Choudhary through my lawyer from J&K High Court (Navyug Sethi) for leveling baseless allegations against me with the sole aim to defame my reputation within the party and the masses. He should apologize within one week or prepare for legal action,” Raina said.
In the legal notice, Sethi said the intentional defamation of his client was a designed move coinciding with the joining of Choudhary in National Conference and his client has suffered serious damage to his name, reputation and goodwill besides suffering from mental trauma.
“You may choose any political party that suits your ambition, yet the choice of words in the tweeton July 11 are purely inappropriate, rather defamatory to my clients and the BJP, despite you knowing well that my client was not involved in any of the alleged acts,” the legal notice read.
Sethi said it was clear that in order to damage his client reputation and years of goodwill as an honest upright politician, the allegations have tarnished his reputation amongst the general public as also in his party circles and relatives. He said his client is well within his legal rights to invoke remedies both under civil and criminal law against Choudhary.